Getting your band on film… by Silvertip Films

So what’s the most important market for a band today? Radio and CD sales right? What’s the second biggest? Television, internet and print!

Being in a band who are serious about making it, you will rehearse and play a lot and no doubt have your demo tracks or even an album recorded, ready to push and promote yourselves with it. All well and good but today, you need a bit more. People want to not only hear you but see you as well, whether it be the executives at the record label that you sent your demo to or the fans or potential fans who are looking at your website (which all serious bands need!) or have purchased your demo disc.

Having a video done or at the least, a photoshoot of your band is an essential communication tool that shows people, both fans and industry people, your commitment to the band and dedication toward making it in the business and it enables them to see what you are like onstage, the image your project both onstage or in a video and what your personalities are like.

Silvertip Films are on the same level as you – serious, passionate, committed and driven, to both films and filmmaking and music. We are a new video production company whose members have various film and media degrees between then and have a wealth of experience built up over the last 7 years which we can offer to our clients and which extends to everything from making short films to documentaries, building and designing websites, taking high quality photographs and, the part you are most likely interested in – making music videos and filming live shows.

We have filmed a number of bands in the last year and a half, some of whom you might have heard of: White Sunday, theOracleboy, Hijera, Carter Brown, Slashed Seat Affair, Kody, Adora, Will Gracie, Air Raid, Kudos, Overkills, Wonderland, Mach Schau and Draven with many more on the way.

Having a video is truly a vital piece of media to have to arm yourselves with for your promotion. As you most likely know, there are a number of different options you can have for a video, the most common being a straight live, studio based performance (which gives control of lighting, performance, camera angles and so on) or a video which has a story-based element to it as well as a live performance section. For a live concert shoot, you can have the whole show filmed or have specific songs shot to make a music video from the footage and you can have as many cameras running on the show as you want.

At Silvertip Films, everything we do is affordable, whether you are a band with a large budget or only a few hundred pounds. We want you to get in touch with us, and tell us what you want from your video – after all, we are here to bring your vision to screen and make it happen – and tell us your budget. We will come back to you with a quote and tell you what we can achieve based upon what you want and what your budget stretches to.

Before we look at the options for live shoots or music videos, there are a few things you need to consider and be aware of regarding shooting and editing. Basically, the more cameras you want for a shoot or the more days you want to spend making a music video, the more costly this becomes and subsequently, the more cameras you have had filming, the more footage there will be in the end and the longer this will take to edit and so this costs more.

What we are saying is, if you have a large budget you can afford more cameras and the longer editing time but if your budget is a tight one, we can still shoot your gig or video and edit it, but there will be less cameras filming.

Another thing to consider is the tape stock used for the shoot – we primarily shoot on high quality HDV (Hi Definition Video) and use HDV cameras, the quality is very good and the cost isn’t that high. There are other, even higher quality cameras and tape stocks we can use as well as film stock, but the costs of these and the gear hire, and the editing of it, are higher so remember that if you want to be shot on real film and not video!

We can hire out gear for shoots as well – steadicams, tracks and dollies etc – things that can enable smoother and more dynamic camera shots.

One thing that is so important for a live shoot or music video is the lighting and making sure there is enough of it for the cameras!! Double what you have, trust us, it will be worth it! The human eye sees light differently to how a camera does – you might think a show looks spectacularly lit but the camera might not. It is vital to have enough lighting to make the show work on camera. We have access to a company who specialize in lighting for live events and have all kinds of wonderful and flashy lighting setups for hire.

When shooting live, we feel that the minimum number of cameras you can get away with is 3. It is, as we are sure you know, one thing to be at a show, experiencing it in the audience, it is another to be watching it at home. A live video recording needs to capture the essence and vitality of your live show and this means, the more cameras you have on you, the more action we can film and the more exciting the end video product will be. Image this – watching a big, spectacular rock show filmed from one or two cameras soon becomes dull doesn’t it with very few options to edit to.

So the more cameras you have to capture everything and the more angles you can edit to, the more exciting it becomes to watch at home. The more cameras we have, the more we can be positioned in different locations around the venue, capturing the action onstage from three vantage points. Usually, we will have one or more cameras running handheld as well to get a slightly documentary feel to the show, which we believe works well for a rock show. For all our live gig shoots, we offer a number of options, all of which mean that whatever your budget, we are most likely to be able to get you on film…

Our basic option is a three camera shoot which includes a director/cameraman and two cameramen but you can have as many cameramen as you want but obviously the more you have the more it costs, not only for the cameramen and film stock but for the editing time as well. You then have a choice of what you want filmed – we can either shoot the whole show for a DVD release or we can shoot the whole show and then fully edit two or more specific tracks to be used as live music videos and then we can turn these into clips to go on your website and demo CD.

Another option is a one or two camera shoot of a live show where we film one specific song and then shoot the rest of the show for close-ups and cutaway shots and then edit together a music video for the song which was shot in its entirety and then the video is finished off with shots from the rest of the video, edited to make it look like one single live performance.

For a music video shoot, we again offer similar options to a live shoot but with music videos the budget issue needs to cover two areas – the first being the number of cameras you want, the number of days the shoot will take and then in turn the number of days of editing time and the second thing to consider is, what do you want to be doing in the video?! As long as your budget covers it, we can help arrange it and be there to shoot and edit it. Like with the live footage, once the video is finished, we can provide it to go on your website or demo CD as well as viewable DVD copies for the band.

In short, there are a lot of options for getting yourselves on film – lots of cameras, not a lot of cameras, big budget, small budget – it doesn’t matter, you can still have something filmed with us. If you also want a photoshoot carried out for your band, we can arrange this as well, if you haven’t yet got a website and want one, we can do this as well. Everything a talented, up and coming band needs can be provided by Silvertip Films.

Take a look at our website at www.silvertipfilms.co.uk where you can see clips from a lot of our work as well as photos and information on our projects and our team. More work is being added all the time. Get in touch with us via info@silvertipfilms.co.uk and tell us what you want and we will get back to you with a quote.

Silvertip Films
11 December 2006